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LanguageCert Practice Reading: Part 2 (Sentence Matching)
ID: #60281
Easy
Yellow 5
Instructions
You are going to read an extract from International News Magazine.
The domestication of chickens
For millions of people around the world, chicken products are a staple food item, and chicken-keeping is a common practice. But the question of when exactly chickens became domesticated and how humans have interacted with them over time has never, until now, been satisfactorily addressed. 1Drop sentence here. But one new study is changing this perception.
The study looked at what were thought to be the earliest examples of chicken bones to be found by archaeologists in Europe and northwest Africa. Twenty-three sets of bones underwent radio-carbon dating in an attempt to discover how old they actually were, so that researchers could get a clearer idea of when the species first arrived in Europe, and how the process of domestication may have taken place. 2Drop sentence here. The others were much more recent, sometimes by thousands of years.
Earlier hypotheses suggested that chickens were present in Europe up to 7,000 years ago. But these results show they were not introduced until around 2,800 years ago. 3Drop sentence here . Cattle and sheep, for example, are thought to have reached Europe around 6,000 years ago.
The radio-carbon dating also suggests that in many locations there was a gap of several hundred years between the introduction of the species to an area and chicken meat appearing in the local people’s diet. Indeed, many of the earliest chickens identified by the radio-carbon dating, including all of those from Britain, seem not to have been kept for their meat. 4Drop sentence here. Further evidence for this conclusion comes from an estimate of chicken numbers at the time, which remain low, and from the fact that the bones studied are from very mature animals. One specimen even has a well-healed leg fracture, indicating human care. 5Drop sentence here. They may have had spiritual significance, too.
In some instances, in the period after chickens were introduced, they were buried alongside humans, perhaps because it was believed that they would lead the person’s soul to the afterlife. 6Drop sentence here. In later cases, the chickens were used as a food offering for the dead – a practice that became more common in Britain through the Ancient Roman period. Clearly, the relationship between people and chickens has a more complex history than was previously assumed, and it was some time before their current status as a food staple developed.
A
This makes them a relatively recent arrival compared to other domesticated species
B
For many people it is difficult to imagine that chickens were ever anything other than a source of food
C
These clues suggest that rather than being considered a source of food, these birds
were more likely regarded as rare, exotic creatures
D
Despite this, these long- established theories fail to take into account certain crucial
factors
E
The skeletons studied were largely complete, and so clearly hadn't been butchered for human consumption
F
In the event, only five of those tested turned out to be as old as had been claimed
G
It is dependent on where the bones are located and what other objects are found with them
H
Such a role makes sense considering the bird's connection with Mercury, the god of communication and travel
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